It is now firmly established that there is a wide range of heart health benefits to increasing the amount of omega 3 essential fats (DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid)) in your diet. One of these important heart benefits, for anyone with high triglycerides, is that increasing your intake of DHA and EPA can help lower triglycerides.
Research shows that over 90 percent of us are deficient in the important essential fatty acids found in fish oil. And research has also confirmed a wide range of heart benefits from remedying that deficiency by including more fish, or fish oil in the form of supplements, in our diet.
Some of the heart benefits of increasing your intake of omega 3 essential fatty acids include a reduction in the risk of arrhythmia, which can lead to fatal heart attack, a reduction in blood pressure and a decrease in the growth rate of plaque in the arteries. But for our purposes today the research also show a decrease in triglycerides levels.
Triglycerides are a fat that is found in your blood and which is manufactured in your body from the food that you eat. If you have high triglycerides this increases the risk of blood clots and can also lower your HDL (good) cholesterol. The bottom line is that high triglycerides are linked to coronary artery disease which can kill you. High triglycerides is also linked to some other diseases such as diabetes.
A diet with high levels of saturated fat intake can increase triglyceride levels as can a diet of high sugar foods. Risk factors also include being overweight and drinking too much alcohol.
So for many people lowering triglycerides is very important, and they want to know how to lower triglycerides.
There are a range of things that you can do to lower triglycerides if you have a problem, including reducing the amount of fatty foods and in particular foods was saturated fats, eating less sugar and exercising more. Also important is reducing alcohol intake and try to lose weight if you are overweight.
However research is now showing that increasing your intake of omega 3 essential fatty acids found in fish oil is also important in a strategy to lower triglycerides.
For example a statement published on the website of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concludes that “omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil decreased serum triglyceride concentrations by 25% to 30%,” and “A dose-response relationship exists between omega-3 fatty acid intake and triglyceride lowering”.
So it is now clear that improving your level of intake of omega 3 essential fatty acids can help lower triglycerides and because this is now clearly established the American Heart Association tells people with high triglycerides to maintain a level of intake of 2 to 4 grams per day of DHA and EPA by way of fish oil supplements under the care of a physician.
Many people have a problem with lowering triglycerides and this is good news for them and gives them a way to lower triglycerides naturally.
And as well as lowering triglycerides there are other heart benefits as well as a wide range of other health benefits from increasing your intake of omega 3 fats by way of fish oil supplementation.
Of course it is simple to eat more fish but unfortunately fish is contaminated with mercury and is generally very expensive. There are excellent fish oil supplements available which are not contaminated and which can be taken daily very cost effectively. Note however that not all fish oil supplements are of high quality.
If you’re interested to find out how to compare fish oil supplements to find the best available (which I take myself) visit my website.
Posted under Miscellaneous Content
This post was written by admin on June 19, 2010
